Force depression decays during shortening in the medial gastrocnemius of the rat

Olaf Till; Tobias Siebert; Reinhard Blickhan

doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2013.12.025

Force depression decays during shortening in the medial gastrocnemius of the rat

J Biomech. 2014 Mar 21;47(5):1099-103. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2013.12.025. Epub 2014 Jan 10.

Authors

Olaf Till¹, Tobias Siebert², Reinhard Blickhan³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Motion Science, Institute of Sport Science, Friedrich Schiller University, Seidelstraße 20, D-07749 Jena, Germany. Electronic address: i7tiol@t-online.de.
² Division of Motion Science, Institute of Sport Science, Friedrich Schiller University, Seidelstraße 20, D-07749 Jena, Germany; Institute of Sport and Motion Science, University of Stuttgart, Allmandring 28, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
³ Division of Motion Science, Institute of Sport Science, Friedrich Schiller University, Seidelstraße 20, D-07749 Jena, Germany.

PMID: 24484645
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2013.12.025

Abstract

Force depression due to shortening of activated skeletal muscles has previously been described to be long lasting during isometric contractions following the shortening. In the present study, using the medial gastrocnemius of the rat, effects of force depression have been made apparent during shortening by computationally partially compensating for the direct effect of shortening velocity due to the tension-velocity relation. Evidence was found for the decay and complete disappearance of force depression already during continuation of the shortening contraction to short muscle lengths.

Keywords: Force depression; History effect; Skeletal muscle.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Male
Muscle Contraction*
Muscle, Skeletal / physiology*
Rats
Rats, Wistar